A Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana’s Political Science Department has expressed disappointment with IMF’s conditionalities for Ghana regarding the $3 billion loan approval.
According to Prof. Ransford Yaw Gyampo, Ghana is a highly corrupt country and the institution has provided no substantial help to check the leakages and slippages.
Mr Gyampo thinks that an IMF that is no longer perturbed about curbing a country’s corruption cannot be taken seriously.
“Indeed, in the fight against corruption, the talk about the continuous implementation of a National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) that exists merely in name by the document, shows that the IMF perhaps is no longer a serious institution.”
“This is because it doesn’t appear there will ever be serious efforts at implementing the NACAP and an IMF that does not know this is bogus,” he said.
He also indicated that the current IMF has lost its boldness and courage unlike previous times and thinks that the IMF in recent times is just tactically encouraging African dependence on the West.
“Otherwise, how and why were very low-hanging serious recommendations that would help us quickly turn things around, overlooked? Is the IMF ignorant that we earn just about only 5% of royalties from our gold?
“Is the IMF not aware that we produce oil and yet earn only just about 13% of the oil revenues? Why didn’t they talk about taxing the extractive sector adequately to raise more revenue for ourselves?”
“Why were they silent on what we must do to stop illicit financial flows? Do they come from countries whose sizes of government are as bloated as ours? Were they coerced to keep quiet about the local and international calls on our government to downsize?” Mr. Gyampo quizzed.
He continued that if the conditionalities do not answer the above questions then they are mere propaganda and only aim at inflicting hardships on deprived people.
“To make Africans dependent on the West; and cover up for leadership incompetence and unwillingness to sacrifice,” he lamented.
He finally cautioned government that Labour would resist any unnecessary imposition of hardships on poor people without an evident show of sacrifice on the part of political leadership.
“The IMF must know that the Ghanaian is intelligent enough to know when a cycle of dependence is being perpetuated and we will soon resist.”
“If the IMF truly wants to help us, then they must be bold in telling us nothing but the truth so we can wiggle ourselves out of imposed and our self-inflicted hardship,” he said.
